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Showing results for patent medicine. Search instead for practice+of+medicine.
Synonyms

patent medicine

American  

noun

  1. a medicine sold without a prescription in drugstores or by sales representatives, and usually protected by a trademark.

  2. a medicine distributed by a company having a patent on its manufacture.

patent medicine British  

noun

  1. a medicine protected by a patent and available without a doctor's prescription

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of patent medicine

First recorded in 1760–70

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.